Some 38 years ago the Hilux was unleashed onto New Zealand’s roads. Today, there are as many variants of the 2014 model as there are the days of Christmas: Double cab or single cab, four-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive, petrol or diesel, wellside or chassis, manual or automatic, special TRD edition or one of the standard range? So, should Santa replace Rudolph and Blitzen with a Hilux to tow his sleigh? Continue reading “Toyota: 2014 Hilux V6 SR5 review” »

As a former WRX STI owner I always look forward to driving the newest incarnation. Mine was a version 4, back in the late 1990s, and I loved it as much as I loved Star Wars when I was kid. Until now I’ve been stuck in that halcyon era of big noise, big exhausts and torquey turbocharged boxer engines. I might just have changed my mind. Continue reading “Subaru: 2014 WRX Premium review” »

Lexus is consistently turning out vehicles that are setting the bar for comfortable cruising. The majority of the range doesn’t set the world on fire in terms of outright sprinting and high-speed manoeuvring capability, but when it comes to pleasing your posterior on a long trip, there’s not much that will match it. Continue reading “Lexus GS300 F Sport 2014 Review” »

One of my first press drives more than a decade ago was a first generation Skoda Octavia hatchback and I was impressed by the overall quality of the car, as much as the generous space it offered, not to mention the competitive price tag for a European car. Continue reading “Skoda Rapid 1.4 TSI 2014 review” »

As Kia’s first truly sporty car (the Sportage most definitely is not sporty), the Cerato Koup Turbo straddles the line between performance coupe and hot hatch(of which it has just released one in New Zealand in the form of the Pro_cee’d GT with the same engine, which hopefully we’ll be driving soon). Continue reading “Kia Cerato Koup Turbo 2014 review” »